There are many interesting things about the new fire Department which
yet remain to be told. Some of them we group together in this chapter under
appropriate headings.

RECENT IMPROVEMENTS IN THE ENGINE
HOUSES

It is interesting to note the various steps by which the houses of the
old-time Volunteer Fire Department have been developed into the typical
house of the present Department. The old-time company partook largely of
the nature of a club, and this was evident throughout the building. The
front was often of brown stone, richly decorated, the first story always
nicely furnished, and the second story generally divided into parlors,
having woodwork, mantels, and plaster ornaments, such as were to be found
in the parlors of the most fashionable swellings in the city. The present
house is more substantially built than the old, but all the glitter is
rigidly excluded, and perhaps nothing remains of the old plan, but the
fact that each much contain a room in the first story for the apparatus.

There were two kinds of houses in use at the beginning of the present
Department, regulated by the size of the lot on which they were built. In
the smaller buildings, not having room for the horses outside, they were
placed installs at the rear of the house and facing the side wall. The
ones had a separate stable built at the rear of the lot and with an open
space or yard intervening between it and the front building. When an alarm
came, two sets of wide double doors had to be opened, and the horses
crossed this yard before reaching the apparatus. As the value of seconds
in reaching a fire began to be appreciated, the horses gradually removed
from the separate stables and located at the rear of the apparatus room,
as in the smaller houses above noted.

In 1877 the development of the present house may be said to have begun.
The experiment was than tried of extending the first story of one of these
old houses to the rear of the lot. In this extension stalls were built
along the walls on each side. They were open at each end, and the horses
faced towards the front, and when an alarm o fire arrived, no time was,
therefore, lost, as formerly, in the horses backing from their stalls, and
turning around to get to their places. This change was no sooner made than
a further improvement suggested itself. Why not put the stalls forward,
near the apparatus? This was immediately done, and as the horses would
thereby reach the engine quicker then the men could from the story above,
the extension was used as a bunk room. Some little time before this the
Department commenced substituting sliding front doors for the old folding
ones.

The new buildings erected at this time were generally on the same plan,
but the stories were made much higher than formerly, and the window area
was greatly increased. The second story was used as a sitting room, and in
the third story, rear, was placed a drying room and the wardrobes for the
men. At the front was a hay and feed room, connecting with the first story
by a hay shute, and galvanized iron leaders for the feed, stored in the
metallic feed boxes. Over the roof was placed a hose tower and a tank
room. The fronts were quite simple,. Built of iron in the first story, and
brick and brown stone above, the whole being surmounted by a galvanized
iron cornice. Above the roof the towers were unornamented.

On the introduction, a few years ago, of sliding poles between the
stories, the first story read bunk room was no longer required, but this
space was made available for apparatus and spare horses. the bunk room was
then placed in the second story, and the third story remained as before.
Under this arrangement, the upper stores were made longer then previously,
and wherever the lot admitted of it, a small rear yard was left. The
towers above the roof were also made decorative in galvanized iron, and
the fronts elaborated by terra-cotta diaper work over the windows and in
the cornice.

When the bunk room was moved to the second story, the desirability of
removing the hay and feed room from the third story and throwing it open
as a sitting room, became apparent. In the houses, therefore, subsequently
built, a shallow, fourth story at the front was added, to contain the tank
and the hay and feed, and it also supplanted the towers. The drying room
was removed to the cellar, thus leaving the third story entirely
unencumbered. The addition of this fourth story also improved the external
appearance of the houses at an insignificant additional expense. In one of
the houses, where space was available, it was economized by the
introduction of a spiral iron staircase, and this was found to be such an
improvement that spiral stairs are now built in the rear of all the new
houses.

This is substantially the evolution in the planning of the houses
within the last nine years, and further improvements, suggested by the
president of the department, and greatly increasing the capacity of the
houses, is about being made, by introducing a powerful hydraulic elevator
at the rear, connecting the cellar with the first story, by which
additional reserve engines may be ready for use when required.

In regard to minor details, the change is not less striking. In the
interior, the elaborate ornamentation of the old houses has entirely
disappeared, and for it has been substituted work of a simple and
substantial character far more appropriate. The first story is now, after
a series of experiments, entirely Georgia pine, all laid edge grain and
tightly caulked. The second and third stories are wainscotted, and the
fourth story is lined similar to the first. All the woodwork throughout
the buildings is varnished. No plaster cornices or ornaments work of any
kind is used. In fact, the health and comfort of the men and horses, and
the ability to answer an alarm in the shortest possible time, alone
governs the planning of the present buildings.

NEW FIRE HEADQUARTERS

The New Fire Department headquarters, just completed, is situated on
the north side of Sixty-seventh Street, west of Third Avenue, and covers a
plot of ground fifty by one hundred feet. Before entering the building to
see the conveniently placed offices, we will glance at the front. Although
simple in its design, it expresses that dignity and solidity in its
construction befitting the home of such am important Municipal Department.
The first story is divided into three large openings. The two western ones
give access to the quarters of Engine No. 39 and Hook and Ladder No. 16;
they are framed with iron, the lintels over them being of singular design,
decorated with salamander heads. The third opening gives access to the
elevator and stairs leading to the general offices of the department. This
door is quite elaborate in treatment. On either side are two red Scotch
granite columns supporting large carved capitals carrying a decorated arch
and pediment. The bases of the columns re decorated with grotesque heads
of animals; on the lintel of the door is a "ribbon moulding,"
which may stand as an architectural representation of some of the
apparatus of the Life Saving Corps, while over the pediment is a flaming
torch in stone. The wall surface of this story, as well as the story
above, is boldly rusticated. The windows of the stories above all center
over these openings. The line of single windows over the eastern door
prepares the eye for the tower which soars above the roof, while the
continuing of a solid pier over the iron column separating the engine room
from that of the truck company, preserves an appearance of solidity of
support which might easily have been destroyed by these necessarily large
openings. The second story is also divided into three openings; the two
western ones having such two heavy stone mullions separating them into
three windows. The piers of this story being quite large, the monotony
which might otherwise have existed in the simple rustication is avoided by
two polished black granite tables, containing the date of erection, names
of the commissioners, the architects, and the purposes of the building.

Above this story the building is constructed of brick with stone
trimmings, and although the third story is thus constructed of the
inferior materials--brick--it is here, nevertheless, that the main effect
of the front is concentrated, and the passer-by would at once
recognize--by the two large windows, each fifteen by eight feet, with
their noble stone balconies, encircled with carving and polished black
granite balustrades, by the superior enrichment of the third window of
this story, and the greater attention paid to carved detail
throughout--that here are the apartments of the commissioners. The fourth
story is divided into five arched windows, four of them being in pairs.
Carving is used sparingly in this story. The story above is divided into
seven openings, six og them intwo groups of three windows each, with
polished black granite columns between them. This story is decidedly more
ornate than the one below, which serves as a foil to the rest of the
front, and by the increased depth of the jambs, gives shadow to the upper
part of the building, and aids the effect of the stone cornice above. This
cornice does not run entirely across the front, but stops some thirteen
feet from the eastern side, thus marking the tower which starts at the
sixth story. Above the cornice is a Mansard roof slated with black slate,
and containing two large stone Mansard windows, each of two arched
openings, united by a gable containing some simple but effective carving.
The roof is terminated by a deck moulding of copper of ornamental design,
and having a row of flaming torches. The tower in this story contains two
small windows. Above thereof is the belfry story of tower, having a large
arched window on each side, through which the bell may be seen from the
street below. The front window has a stone balcony, giving an extended
view of the city, but the view is not to be compared to the one to be had
from the broad iron balcony of the story above, and which runs around the
tower and forms the cornice of the belfry story. From here is a noble view
of the city and all the surrounding country. Between the brackets of the
balcony are boldly projecting stone shields on the four sides of the
tower. The lookout story itself is of iron, treated as such, with no
attempt to imitate a more valuable material, and surmounted by a slated
spire, terminated by a copper finial.

The dimensions of the front are: height to cresting of Mansard, 101
feet; and to top of spire, 160 feet above the curb. The materials are
granite, brown sand stone from Kocher's quarry, Philadelphia brick and
iron.